Manufacture of starch paste



May 28, 1940. P, Q CQPPOCK 2,202,573-

MANUFACTURE OF STARCH PASTE Filed oct. 3, 19:58

Atiorney Patented May 28, 1940 UNITED STATES MANUFACTURE oF s'rARcnPASTE Philip Dalton Coppock, Bebington, Wirral, lling--A land, assignorto The Distillers Company Limited, Edinburgh, Scotland, a Britishcompany Application October 3, 1938, Serial No. 233,126

In Great Britain October 13, 1937 1 Claim.

I'his invention relates to the manufacture of starch paste and has forits object the provision of a method of and means for manufacturingstarch paste in a continuous manner to obviate the use of bulkymanufacturing plant, to render bulk storage unnecessary, and to enablethe paste to become available at a predesired rate.

According to the present invention a continuous stream of steam lsintimately mixed with amylaceous material such as manioc flour or maizeor potato starch in suspension in water in the form of a continuousstream, the two streams being so set or regulated that the mixture isentirely converted by the heat into starch paste of requisiteconsistency which is continuously used or collected as such.

I'he aqueous suspension of manioc flour or the like may be supplied bygravity or under pressure from a reservoir but preferably it is suckedfrom a reservoir by the steam by using the latter in a steam ejectordevice, the advantage of this being that variations in steam flowautomatically cause correspondingly adequate variations in suspensionnow, and that when the steam supply is cut ol! the induced stream ofsuspension automatically stops.

It Awill be understood that such a system is quite different from theuse of steam injectors immersed ln a tank or reservoir Acontaining abulk of raw starch in aqueous suspension for the purpose of heating andagitating the bulk of liquid. In such a system any considered portion ofthe starch on passing through the injector is proiected back intov themain bulk of liquid whereas the method of' the present invention affordsa continuous stream of completely gelatinlsed starch.

In order that the invention may be clearly understood and readilycarried into effect I will now describe the same more fully withreference to the accompanying drawing which illustrates somewhatdiagrammatically one form of apparatus suitable for the purpose.

The apparatus comprises a vertical substantially e cylindrical chamber Ithrough the top of which projects a downwardly converging steam nozzle 2supplied with steam from a pipe 3 controlled by a valvel. The tip of thesteam nozzle 2 is close to the mouth of a downwardly divergent deliverynozzle 5 coaxial with the steam nozzle and projecting upwardly insidethe chamber I from the base thereof and continuing thence in the form ofa delivery pipe 6. /Connected later- 8 by suitable means such as apaddle 8X. ylating valve 9 can be used to adjust the volume ally 4to thechamber i near the meeting level of the nozzles 2 and 5 is the floursuspension feed pipe 'l which extends down into the flour suspensionwhich is kept in agitation in the reservoir Aregu- 5 of ow of the oursuspension. The delivery pipe 6 terminates above the bottom of asteadyig chamber I0 in which a small amount of the paste issuing fromthe pipe 6 collects and dwells 10 temporarily before leaving by the exitpipe Il near the upper end of this chamber. I2 is a drain pipewithAvalve I3 for occasional use.

In operation, steam is admitted from pipe 3y to the-steamnozzle 2 andpasses into the nozzle 15 5 drawing with it a stream of the iioursuspension from the reservoir 8 by way of the valve 9 and pipe l. Theflour becomes cooked by the heat of the steam which condenses, and thepaste collects yin the steadying chamber I0 and iinallyl) escapesthrough the exit pipe Il.y A suitable" steam supply pressure is fiftypounds per square inch. The production may be irregular at iirst, butsteady conditions can easily be established by regulating the feeds 0fsteam and suspension 25 iluid. The conditions to be established shouldalso be such that the steam is condensed and that the heating effect onthe flour suspension is sufficiently intense and prolonged to bringabout the conversion of the iiour and water mixture 3o into adhesivepaste of the desired consistency.

When the supply of steam is stopped the .flour suspension in the pipe lrecedes into the reservoir,

8. Residual steam may drive out the paste inV the steadying chamber l0,but if notand if the 85 presence of residual paste in the vchamber .IBis detrimental to restarting manufacture?, the residual paste can beblown out through the drain pipe l2. e

What I claim is:

An apparatus for manufacturing starch paste comprising a mixing chamber,an ejector within said mixing chamber having a steam supply underpressure in connection therewith, means for conveying amylaceousmaterial suspended in water into said chamber for forming a mixture withthe steam issuing from said ejector, a collecting chamber having anoutlet in its upper portion and a conduit for conveying said mixturefrom said mixing chamber to a point within said collecting chamberadjacent the bottom thereof.

PHILIP DALTON COPPOCK.

